Gulf Coast Business Review (01/20/12) Alex Mahadevan

Hire Partners LLC, a private equity company launched at the end of 2011 by John West and Mark Whittington, is building a rapidly growing holding company for firms in the resource personnel outsourcing and staffing industry. The new firm already wholly owns Atlanta-based Hire Velocity LLC and owns a majority of Washington, DC-based TSC LLC.

West says there is great potential in the staffing industry, especially in the information technology sector, in the near future. While the unemployment rate was 8.5% for December, for management, professional, and related occupations—on which West says the firms he will target are focused—it was only 4.2%. Whittington adds that “companies who stocked up on permanent people 10 years ago aren’t willing to do the same today.” After the two recessions over the last decade, he expects firms to rely heavily on temporary staffing firms. “Outsourcing temporary staffing firms will become a permanent part of their business,” he says.